Changing the max page width, Big Brother theme

  • heruca · Member ·

    Had a big shock today when I realized that my soon-to-launch new site looks skinny and centered when viewed on a very large display, and I’d like it to use the full available width, if possible. Is this a change I can make fairly easily? If so, how do I go about it? Just increase the max-width variable in style.css, as shown here? 

    @media (min-width: 1280px) {
  .site-content,
  .main-navigation ul,
  .site-footer-wrapper {
    margin: 0 auto;
    max-width: 1280px;

    The blog I need help with is: (visible only to logged in users)

  • heruca · Member ·

    Oops, the site I want to fix is actually this one:
    http://www.battlegroundsgames.com/wordpress/

  • sarahblackstock · Member ·

    Hi there!

    You can certainly use a media query as you’ve shown to adjust the width of your site. (Be sure to add } } to the end of that code so it closes properly… You may have just not pasted it in, but wanted to mention it just in case.)

    However, there are a few things to keep in mind when making content areas wider:
    – Often times people using larger screens aren’t looking at only one site filling the whole screen at a time, so they don’t necessarily want/need it to fill the full width.
    – Longer lines of text in your content can be difficult to read, so sticking to a more standard width for those can make it easier for your readers to use your site.

    For example, this post on sizing discusses the idea that 45 to 85 characters across on a line of text is the best width range for how people read (and gives reasons why you may not want to go beyond that): https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2014/09/balancing-line-length-font-size-responsive-web-design/

    If you’d like help with this, please post in the WordPress.org forums here: https://wordpress.org/support, since your site is running your own install of WordPress on another host and not using WordPress.com. :)

  • heruca · Member ·

    Thanks for the response. You bring up some good points I had not considered. Perhaps I’ll wait to see what user feedback is like once the site goes live.

    And thanks for pointing me to the right place for future questions. I wasn’t able to find it on my own.

  • sarahblackstock · Member ·

    You’re welcome! :)

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